Forrest Keeling Plants

Better seed sources, better plants

Forrest Keeling specializes in the production of native plant materials of unique quality as well as a full line of popular landscape-sized evergreens, trees, shrubs, ground covers and specimen trees.
We take pride in our use of quality seed sources. The original geographic source of seed, also called, provenance, dictates characteristics such as dormancy periods, fruiting, flowering and leafing out, and hardiness. Each Forrest Keeling plant is tagged with tracking information that identifies its provenance. Knowing the plant's provenance helps insure selecting the best plant for your site.
Some plants are included in special programs and display that program logo on their plant record. These include the Missouri Botanical Garden-Kemper Center Plants of Merit and Grow Native! programs. The RPM logo with "Wetland Plant, MSD Approved" is displayed on Midwestern plants included in the St. Louis Metropolitan Stormwater Manual and Maryland Stormwater Management Guide. These plants are recommended plants for Midwest wetland projects, appropriate for wetland mitigation, streambank stabilization and related projects.
Sort our available plants in our Plant Search. by a variety of qualities including,
Special Programs, Attributes, Exposure, or Soil Moisture Preference. Your sorted list can then be saved and printed.

Royal Red Norway Maple is rumored to be the hardiest purple-leaf maple. This slower growing maple returns excellent maroon, deep red color all season long. Oval in shape at a young age broadening into an excellent shade tree.

Sun Valley Red Maple is a cross between Red Sunset and Autumn Flame that produces a moderate ovate crown. Brilliant green summer leaves change to orange-red in the fall. Sun Valley Red Maple is a great new tree for lawn or street planting.

Native Sugar Maple is a large shade tree with excellent form. Famous for it prized syrup, Sugar Maples offer fabulous fall color in shades of bright yellow, orange or red. Sugar Maple grows in a variety of soil types but prefers a rich, well-drained soil.

The yellow buckeye, or common buckeye is a species of deciduous tree native to the Ohio Valley and Appalachian Mountains. It grows in mesophytic forest or floodplains. The fruit is poisonous to humans, but can be made edible through a leaching process.

Serviceberry is a fine native shrub or small tree found in woods, along river banks and along rocky slopes. Clusters of fragrant white spring flowers are followed by purple-black, berrylike fruits favored by songbirds and people. Fall foliage is a blend of orange, gold, red and green.

Roundleaf Serviceberry is a deciduous, early-flowering, large shrub or small tree with showy, fragrant, white spring flowers. Summer fruits resemble miniature apples and are reddish to purple when mature.

The pink flower buds of 'Robin Hill' Serviceberry distinguish it from other native serviceberry selections. 'Robin Hill' Serviceberry has an upright habit that makes it a good choice for street plantings or other settings where a small, attractive tree is desired.

Lead Plant is a small shrubby prairie plant with tight spikes of iridescent purple and orange summer flowers. Found in dry to mesic prairies and in open, upland savannas through most of the tallgrass region. Leadplant is in the legume family so it fixes nitrogen in the soil.

Rounded spikes of starry, sky blue flowers emerge in spring and last for several weeks. Deep green willowlike leaves turn bright gold in the fall. The plant takes on a substantial rounded form in the garden. Swallowtail butterflies love the nectar.

Big Bluestem is a native warm-season grass that has upright foliage clumps. Its green to blue-green leaves in summer turn copper-red in fall. If left in place, Big Bluestem's foliage adds interest to the winter landscape and provides cover for wildlife.

Splitbeard Bluestem is a native bunchgrass. Its ribbon-like leaves are often purplish and the silvery-white seed tufts catch the light and look particularly attractive with the sun behind them.
Frequently found growing with Little Bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium) in well-drained, sandy or gravelly soil.

Broomsedge is not a true sedge but is a member of the grass family, Poaceae. In the fall, the leaves turn a conspicuous reddish-orange color that may be seen in open fields or along roadsides and forests edges. Tolerates poor soil and is often used as an indicator or sites that need fertilizer.
The young plants are sometimes used as grazing forage for cattle or cut and used as hay. As the plants mature, they become too woody for the cattle to digest well. Bobwhite Quail and small rodents eat the grass and seeds and many wildlife species use the plants for shelter or nesting sites.

Brilliant Red Chokeberry is an adaptable small, multi-branched shrub often grown as an ornamental for its showy flowers and fruit. Its white, spring flowers are followed by large, black fall fruits. Fall foliage turns scarlet red.

Sweetly scented clusters of Marsh Milkweed's rose-pink flowers bloom in summer. All kinds of pollinators find the nectar of Marsh Milkweed irresistable and monarch larvae feed on the foliage. Marsh Milkweed is found along streams and ponds and in wet meadows. Great in rain gardens.

Pawpaw is a multi-stemmed shrub or small tree is a great plant for attracting all kinds of wildlife. Pawpaw's yellowish fruit is relished by many birds and small mammals. Pawpaw spreads slowly to form small colonies or thickets, providing good cover for a variety of wildlife. Requires cross pollination from another unrelated paw paw tree.

'Allegheny' Pawpaw fruits have average fleshiness with slightly more seed than other Peterson varieties. Fruit flavor is sweet and rich, with a hint of citrus. Smaller fruit than other Peterson varieties, typically less than eight ounces, but bears more number of fruits.

Pawpaw is a multi-stemmed shrub or small tree is a great plant for attracting all kinds of wildlife. 'Mango' Pawpaw has exceptionally large and delicious fruit with yellow flesh. Mango is the most vigorous of the usually slow-growing paw paw varieties, and it produces a good crop.

NC-1 Pawpaw has large and delicious, early-ripening fruit with few seeds and thin skin. NC-1 Pawpaw is a hybrid seedling of Davis x Overleese; selected by R. Douglas Campbell, Ontario, Canada, in 1976.

Rappahannock is a superior tree. Ripe, yellow fruits show well among the foliage, because of the unique, horizontal habit of the leaves. Rappahannock fruit is large and symmetrical, with sweet, superior flavor.

'Shenandoah' is consistently ranked as the most popular Peterson Pawpaw. Fruit has smooth texture, sweet fruity flavor and yields good crops of large fruit with few seeds. Texture is firmer than wild pawpaws but softer than other varieties.

Smooth Aster is an attractive and long-lived native aster with attractive, smooth blue-green foliage. Abundant flowers appear on Smooth Aster plants late in the fall, when few other plants dare risk the danger of frost. Tolerates a broad variety of soil types and moisture levels.

New England Aster is a dependable perennial which grows up to six feet tall and produces hundreds of large, bright purple flowers with yellow centers in September and October. New England Aster flowers are a favorite nectar source for migrating monarch butterflies.

This shorter aster is usually less than three feet tall and is an excellent late bloomer for the mixed border. Loads of blue flowers with yellow centers bloom in fall. The foliage is blue-green and stems are dark. Butterflies love the nectar.